


turn back the clock and give me some time, (1/1)

by la_victorienne



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always the Opposite Sex, F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-13
Updated: 2010-08-13
Packaged: 2017-10-26 08:52:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/281124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_victorienne/pseuds/la_victorienne





	turn back the clock and give me some time, (1/1)

_**turn back the clock and give me some time, (1/1)**_  
 **title** : turn back the clock and give me some time  
 **rating** : pg  
 **pairing** : eames/always-a-girl!arthur  
 **spoilers** : none glaring, though there are references  
 **disclaimer** : all hail nolan, dreamer extraordinaire.  
 **writer's note** : 572 words. and if you're wondering why genderswapped arthur, you can take up the question with my subconscious projections, because i have no idea. warning for het, although nothing explicit.  
 **summary** : Five times Elizabeth Arthur meets Jack Eames before the Fischer job.

 _i._ The first time Elizabeth Arthur meets Jack Eames he calls her Artie, and is promptly shot in the head. (Later he will meet Ariadne and ask if there's a joke he's not in on, and he will be shot again, because he knows better.) He re-enters the dream only a few minutes later, but does not apologize. Cobb gives Arthur a look and shakes his head, and she tactfully refrains from shooting Eames again.

"Very well, Mr. Eames," she says curtly. "Come along, work to do."

"As you wish, darling."

Arthur's trigger finger twitches. Eames considers this a success.

 _ii._ The second time Elizabeth Arthur meets Jack Eames it is at Mal Cobb's funeral, and she is crying. He is at once struck by how gracefully she does it, silently and unhurried, and also by the fact she looks exactly the same, not a hair out of place.

It is the first time she lets him touch her, leaning into the hand he places on the small of her back, there in the corner of Mal's parents' home. She is watching Dom across the room, ready to help him escape if he needs it, but Eames knows she was close to Mal, too, and he never leaves her side.

It is also the first time they kiss, but sometimes Eames is a gentleman, and he promises not to bring up what happens next.

 _iii._ The third time Elizabeth Arthur meets Jack Eames, she ties him to a motel headboard, and kisses his right palm before walking out the door.

He texts her when he gets both hands free, with plenty of colorful language and an angry face for good measure, and fumes silently until his phone buzzes again.

 _I had a job to do_ , she replies, _and intel suggested you'd be in the way. How long did it take to realize I wasn't coming back?_

He does not respond, because the answer is _too long_. What he has also realized, in all the quality time he has had to himself all evening, is that he might have a problem, where Arthur is concerned.

 _iv._ (The fourth time Elizabeth Arthur meets Jack Eames doesn't count, because she is drunk and he is not an idiot. She wakes up in his bed and his shirt the next day with her silk blouse and pencil skirt laid out on the armchair beside her, and refuses to believe him when he explains that he does not routinely sleep with intoxicated women, although it is the truth. She threatens to castrate him with the heels of her Louboutins if he ever mentions the incident again, and he believes her. She has, after all, shot him several times before.)

 _v._ The fifth time Elizabeth Arthur meets Jack Eames he tells her he thinks he might love her, and she shoots _herself_ in the head. She's gone when he wakes up only moments later, the uncoiled length of PASIV the only trace that she was ever there at all.

They don't speak for months. But he keeps an eye on her, as she runs extractions and long cons and becomes, without a doubt, the best point man in the business, not to mention the only one who can run in high heels. She and Cobb tour the world, twice, never knowing that Eames is only a few steps behind.

(This is patently untrue. When Cobb mentions Eames, she sends him straight to Mombasa.)  



End file.
